Lagging Congressional funding for private space companies continues to put NASA at the behest of Russia

The United States and Russia are engaged in a deepening political crisis over the future of Ukraine and its Crimean Peninsula.

A big question is what happens to the International Space Station partnership, in which the United States operates the station and Russia provides transport to and from the orbiting laboratory. NASA currently pays ROSCOSMOS approximately $70 million per seat to fly our astronauts into space.

In recent years NASA has been working with several companies — principally SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada — to develop rockets and spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the station.

The space agency originally planned for at least one of these vehicles to be ready by 2016, but Congress has chronically underfunded these private initiatives.

Here’s a look at the budget requests for the last four years, as well as the President’s budget request for 2015:

2011: Budget request, $500 million. Actual budget: $270 million.

2012: Budget request, $850 million. Actual budget: $406 million.

2013: Budget request, $830 million. Actual budget: $488 million.

2014: Budget request, $821 million. Actual budget: $696 million.

2015: Budget request, $848 million. Actual budget: ???

In the four years from 2011 to 2014, then, NASA sought $3 billion for commercial crew funding. It received $1.86 billion, or 62 percent.

On Tuesday NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said during a teleconference with the media that there are no issues with the U.S.-Russian relationship in space.

“Right now everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians,” Bolden said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation. Our crews continue to train in Star City. Things are nominal right now.”

But if the situation escalates? Who knows.

Bolden added that it’s a no-brainer to fully fund commercial crew in light of the present geopolitical situation. “It is ultra critical that we get full funding for the commercial crew program. We really need to get on with getting America its own capability to launch Americans into space and not be reliant on any other country.”